{"id":23803,"date":"2025-06-05T20:14:54","date_gmt":"2025-06-05T12:14:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/hakuto-r-mission-2-lost-during-landing-attempt\/"},"modified":"2025-06-05T20:14:54","modified_gmt":"2025-06-05T12:14:54","slug":"hakuto-r-mission-2-lost-during-landing-attempt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/hakuto-r-mission-2-lost-during-landing-attempt\/","title":{"rendered":"HAKUTO-R Mission 2 lost during landing attempt"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Just over two years after the Japanese company ispace attempted but failed to land its HAKUTO-R Mission 1, the HAKUTO-R Mission 2 <em>Resilience<\/em> lander attempted a lunar landing this week but was not successful. Mission 2 was to touch down on the lunar surface at 60.5 degrees north and 4.6 degrees west, in Mare Frigoris, the same region in the Moon\u2019s northern hemisphere where Mission 1 attempted to touch down at Atlas Crater in 2023.<\/p>\n<p><em>Resilience<\/em>, in orbit around the Moon since early May, was scheduled to land one month after its lunar orbit insertion. The spacecraft attempted its landing on Thursday, June 5, at 19:17 UTC (4:17 AM JST Friday, June 6) near the center of Mare Frigoris, but data was lost 90 seconds before landing. The company later confirmed the mission was lost. &nbsp;There was a contingency plan for up to three alternate sites with dates and times for each should that be needed, but this plan was not used.<\/p>\n<p><iframe id=\"twitter-widget-1\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allowtransparency=\"true\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" class=\"\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden; width: 0px; height: 0px; display: block; flex-grow: 1;\" title=\"X Post\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/embed\/Tweet.html?creatorScreenName=Bubbinski&amp;dnt=true&amp;embedId=twitter-widget-1&amp;features=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%3D%3D&amp;frame=false&amp;hideCard=false&amp;hideThread=false&amp;id=1930816234188365871&amp;lang=en&amp;origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nasaspaceflight.com%2F2025%2F06%2Fhakuto-r-m2-landing%2F&amp;sessionId=3cfb08bdd403deeffebb971e4a5f5edbaacdf86a&amp;siteScreenName=NASASpaceflight&amp;theme=light&amp;widgetsVersion=6a3ad42b224df%3A1778106238597&amp;width=550px\" data-gtm-yt-inspected-14=\"true\" data-gtm-yt-inspected-21=\"true\" data-tweet-id=\"1930816234188365871\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\" data-twitter-extracted-i1783493880269464727=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">As of 8:00 a.m. on June 6, 2025, mission controllers have determined that it is unlikely that communication with the lander will be restored and therefore completing Success 9 is not achievable. It has been decided to conclude the mission.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGiven that there is currently no\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/IoRUfggoiQ<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 ispace (@ispace_inc) June 6, 2025<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/p>\n<p>If <em>Resilience<\/em> had landed according to plan, it would have been the second fully successful commercial robotic lunar landing of not just this year but also in history, after Firefly\u2019s Blue Ghost Mission 1 \u201cGhost Riders In The Sky\u201d, which <em>Resilience<\/em> shared a ride to orbit with on a Falcon 9. It would also have become the second successful Japanese lunar landing after SLIM, which was a Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency project.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"\ud83d\ude80SpaceX Falcon 9 Launches Firefly Blue Ghost &amp; HAKUTO-R M2 \u201cResilience\u201d to the Moon\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/KWY-GFHcjik?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\" name=\"fitvid0\" data-gtm-yt-inspected-14=\"true\" data-gtm-yt-inspected-21=\"true\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Other commercial landing attempts include and the Intuitive Machines IM-1 and IM-2 spacecraft, which were able to function for a time on the surface but ended in non-nominal orientations due to landing issues. The ispace company\u2019s first HAKUTO-R mission failed due to a misinterpretation of altimeter data caused by a computer software issue exposed when the spacecraft passed a crater wall on its way to the landing site.<\/p>\n<h4 class=\"widget-title penci-border-arrow\">See Also<\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li>HAKUTO-R Mission 2 Thread<\/li>\n<li>Ispace Lunar Landers Thread<\/li>\n<li>NSF Store<\/li>\n<li>Click here to Join L2<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>This interpretation of the data \u2014 rejecting it as bad when it was in fact correct \u2014 caused Mission 1 to hover at five kilometers above the lunar surface. After the lander ran out of fuel, it spun uncontrollably and impacted the surface, ending the mission. <em>Resilience<\/em>, though using the same basic HAKUTO-R design as Mission 1, incorporated upgrades from the lessons learned based on the first flight.<\/p>\n<p>Aerospace &amp; Defense<path d=\"M7.59009 18.59L9.00009 20L17.0001 12L9.00009 4L7.59009 5.41L14.1701 12\" style=\"animation: initial !important; background: initial !important; border: 0px !important; box-shadow: none !important; color: inherit !important; cursor: inherit !important; direction: inherit !important; display: inline !important; fill: currentcolor !important; filter: initial !important; float: none !important; margin: 0px !important; opacity: initial !important; outline: 0px !important; overflow: initial !important; padding: 0px !important; stroke: initial !important; transform: initial !important; vertical-align: initial !important; visibility: inherit !important;\"><\/path>NASA mission updates<path d=\"M7.59009 18.59L9.00009 20L17.0001 12L9.00009 4L7.59009 5.41L14.1701 12\" style=\"animation: initial !important; background: initial !important; border: 0px !important; box-shadow: none !important; color: inherit !important; cursor: inherit !important; direction: inherit !important; display: inline !important; fill: currentcolor !important; filter: initial !important; float: none !important; margin: 0px !important; opacity: initial !important; outline: 0px !important; overflow: initial !important; padding: 0px !important; stroke: initial !important; transform: initial !important; vertical-align: initial !important; visibility: inherit !important;\"><\/path>Rocket building kits<path d=\"M7.59009 18.59L9.00009 20L17.0001 12L9.00009 4L7.59009 5.41L14.1701 12\" style=\"animation: initial !important; background: initial !important; border: 0px !important; box-shadow: none !important; color: inherit !important; cursor: inherit !important; direction: inherit !important; display: inline !important; fill: currentcolor !important; filter: initial !important; float: none !important; margin: 0px !important; opacity: initial !important; outline: 0px !important; overflow: initial !important; padding: 0px !important; stroke: initial !important; transform: initial !important; vertical-align: initial !important; visibility: inherit !important;\"><\/path>\n<p>     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});<\/p>\n<p>After its rideshare launch to the Moon on Jan. 15, 2025, <em>Resilience<\/em> arrived in a highly elliptical lunar orbit on May 6 at 20:41 UTC (5:41 AM JST May 7). The arrival came after taking a fuel-efficient trajectory, which included a flyby of the Moon on Feb. 15 before attaining a maximum distance of 1.5 million km from Earth.<\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-107027\" class=\"size-full wp-image-107027\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_6093.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1283\" height=\"1074\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_6093.jpeg 1283w, https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_6093-350x293.jpeg 350w, https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_6093-418x350.jpeg 418w, https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_6093-768x643.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_6093-1170x979.jpeg 1170w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1283px) 100vw, 1283px\"><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-107027\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Moon as seen from ispace\u2019s HAKUTO-R Mission 2 lander Resilience. (Credit: ispace)<\/p>\n<p>The lunar flyby came to within 8,400 km of the lunar surface, the closest Resilience would come to the Moon prior to its orbital insertion. Immediately after orbital insertion, the spacecraft reached a highly elliptical lunar orbit of 44 km by 5,910 km with a 104-degree inclination according to calculations by citizen scientist Scott Tilley. Over the following weeks, the lander gradually lowered its orbit, ending up in a circular orbit around 100 km altitude on May 28 after a 10-minute engine burn.<\/p>\n<p><em>Resilience, <\/em>with a 340 kg dry mass, orbited the Moon once every two hours prior to starting the landing sequence, and completed all orbital control activities \u2014 the eighth out of its 10 planned mission milestones \u2014 a few days before its landing attempt. The attempt started well enough with a good deorbit burn followed by a pitch-up maneuver to adjust attitude. The lander moved into a terminal descent phase before its touchdown, and it used one main landing thruster plus six assist thrusters.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-107050\" class=\"size-full wp-image-107050\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_6248.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2368\" height=\"1324\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_6248.jpeg 2368w, https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_6248-350x196.jpeg 350w, https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_6248-626x350.jpeg 626w, https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_6248-768x429.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_6248-1920x1074.jpeg 1920w, https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_6248-1170x654.jpeg 1170w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2368px) 100vw, 2368px\"><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-107050\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Screenshot of live telemetry from HAKUTO R M2 Resilience\u2019s landing attempt. (Credit: ispace)<\/p>\n<p>Everything seemed to go according to plan until close to 90 seconds before landing, when telemetry showed the craft descending rapidly. The last readings from the spacecraft showed the lander only 52 m from the surface, and that value quickly changed to over -300 m \u2013 in other words, underneath the surface \u2013 before all telemetry was lost. The time of landing passed without any further contact, and with clearly worried controllers assessing the situation.<\/p>\n<p>The landing was to become the mission\u2019s ninth milestone, and if all had gone well, it was to be followed by establishing a steady power-positive state using<em> Resilience\u2019s<\/em> solar panels, capable of generating up to 350 watts. It would have attempted to obtain a steady communications link.<\/p>\n<p>The landing site was chosen so that the 2.3 m tall lander, with a total footprint of 2.6 x 2.6 m, could have remained in contact with Earth at all times. These activities were to be the tenth and final mission milestone, which would have allowed customer activities on the lunar surface.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-107028\" class=\"size-full wp-image-107028\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_6089.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"1200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_6089.jpeg 1200w, https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_6089-350x350.jpeg 350w, https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_6089-768x768.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_6089-1170x1170.jpeg 1170w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\"><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-107028\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Tenacious rover shown in its protective box on the Resilience lander before launch. (Credit: ispace)<\/p>\n<p><em>Resilience<\/em> carried a small lunar rover and several payloads from various companies. The micro rover, known as <em>Tenacious,<\/em> had a carbon fiber structure, massed five kilograms with dimensions of 26 x &nbsp;31.5 x 54 cm, and was manufactured by ispace in its Luxembourg facility. The rover was carrying a work of art on board, a Falu red miniature cottage called Moonhouse by Swedish artist Mikael Genberg, which it was to deposit on the lunar surface.<\/p>\n<p><em>Tenacious<\/em> also featured a soil scoop to gather regolith, which it was to then photograph for NASA. The rover also contained a forward-mounted high-definition camera. <em>Tenacious<\/em> was to be controlled from the ground with <em>Resilience,<\/em> equipped with X-band communications, functioning as a relay, and was to rove around the landing site untethered.<\/p>\n<p>The lander\u2019s secondary payloads included a Takasago Thermal Engineering Company-developed water electrolyzer as well as a food production experiment module developed by the Euglena Company. A radiation probe flown by Taiwan\u2019s National Central University was also on board, as well as a \u201cCharter of the Universal Century\u201d commemorative plaque provided by Bandai Namco.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-107032\" class=\"size-full wp-image-107032\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_6099.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1100\" height=\"1100\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_6099.png 1100w, https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_6099-350x350.png 350w, https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_6099-768x768.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1100px) 100vw, 1100px\"><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-107032\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter image of Resilience\u2019s planned landing site in Mare Frigoris. (Credit: NASA\/ASU\/GSFC)<\/p>\n<p>The United Nations also had a small payload aboard <em>Resilience<\/em>. The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization provided a memory disk, which will be a cultural artifact aboard the lander. The memory disk has examples of 275 human languages.<\/p>\n<p>This memory disk, intended to preserve a record of cultural and linguistic diversity, was the latest attempt by humanity to preserve some of its knowledge aboard space missions. It was similar in purpose to the famous \u201cGolden Records\u201d carried by Voyager 1 and 2 and other items included in missions leaving Earth.<\/p>\n<p>The HAKUTO-R Mission 2, though conceived and operated by a Japanese company, had international elements. The <em>Tenacious <\/em>rover was actually the first European-built rover to go to the Moon. Moreover, the European Space Agency supported mission communications with ground stations in Argentina, Australia, French Guiana, Spain, and the United Kingdom.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-107030\" class=\"size-full wp-image-107030\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_6098.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"2459\" height=\"1033\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_6098.png 2459w, https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_6098-350x147.png 350w, https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_6098-630x265.png 630w, https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_6098-768x323.png 768w, https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_6098-1920x807.png 1920w, https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_6098-1170x492.png 1170w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2459px) 100vw, 2459px\"><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-107030\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Illustration of the APEX 1.0 lander, scheduled for launch in 2027. (Credit: ispace)<\/p>\n<p>The ispace company operates facilities in Japan, Luxembourg, and the United States \u2014 in Denver, Colorado. The Denver facility is working on the APEX 1.0 lander, which is intended to fly on ispace\u2019s Mission 3 to the lunar far side in 2027. &nbsp;The company develops the lander for NASA\u2019s Commercial Lunar Payload Services as part of \u201cTeam Draper,\u201d led by US space and defense contractor Draper.<\/p>\n<p>Regardless of how the HAKUTO-R Mission 2 turned out, more commercial and government-operated robotic landing missions are planned for the lunar surface prior to human missions planned by NASA and China. After a very long period in the late 20th Century with no lunar missions at all, renewed international competition and cooperation, along with a surging commercial space sector, are expected to keep lunar exploration on this century\u2019s spaceflight agenda.<\/p>\n<p>(<em>Lead image: Rendering of the HAKUTO-R Mission 2 lander Resilience and its Tenacious rover on the lunar surface. Credit: ispace)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Just over two years after the Japanese company ispace attempted but failed to land its HAKUTO-R Mission 1, the HAKUTO-R Mission 2 Resilience lander attempted a lunar landing this week but was not successful. Mission 2 was to touch down on the lunar surface at 60.5 degrees north and 4.6 degrees west, in Mare Frigoris, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1635,357,377,8102,3549,137,625,3857],"class_list":["post-23803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-hakuto-r","tag-ispace","tag-japan","tag-lander","tag-landing","tag-lunar","tag-moon","tag-rover"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23803"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23803"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23803\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}